Manny Pacquiao vs. Henry Armstrong: The Fantasy Tale of the Tape

A number of modern day boxing fans are probably not familiar with Henry Armstrong, but they should be.

“Hammerin’ Hank” had a much decorated career between 1931 and 1945.

He was the first professional fighter to win three world titles in three different divisions, and also holds the honor of being the only boxer to hold the featherweight, welterweight and lightweight titles simultaneously.

Additionally, Armstrong is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and was voted the second greatest fighter in the last 80 years by Ring Magazine in 2007.

Odds are everyone reading is quite familiar with Manny Pacquiao’s credentials…or else they wouldn’t be reading in the first place.

For the sake of a fair comparison, bear in mind that Pacquiao is an eight-division world champion, who has held 10 world titles within these divisions.

Pacquiao is currently considered the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world by just about every credible sports outlet including The Ring, Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

Furthermore, Pacquiao is currently on a 13-fight win streak and has not lost a match in nearly six years.

Of course it is impossible for us to ever witness a showdown between these two as they are from two completely different eras, but that doesn’t mean we cannot take a look at a tale of the tape.

Let us evaluate how these two enigmatic fighters would match up in a fictional show down in the ring.

Quickness

This is definitely the toughest category to differentiate who has a clear cut advantage. Both fighters are well recognized for being incredibly fast with not only their hands, but also their footwork.

Not many boxers can devise a much sounder game plan heading into a fight than Manny Pacquiao, but Armstrong would definitely be able to take the fight to him for all twelve rounds.

Armstrong went 15 rounds on several occasions in his day, and was highly commended by fans and analysts alike for his freakish stamina.

It is nearly impossible to determine who is quicker between the two fighters, but Armstrong gets the nod here since he was more used to going the distance in his fights than Pacquiao is up to this point in his career.

Power

In 1938, Armstrong won an unheard of 27 fights in a row by way of knockout.

Out of his 149 career victories, 101 of them saw his opponents staring at the lights. This is approximately a 67 percent knockout rate, very impressive, especially when considering the volume of fights Armstrong had.

Pacquiao is one pace for a similar career knock out rate, currently sitting at about 66 percent. 38 of his 52 wins saw the Pacman KO his opponent, also a very tough feat to accomplish.

Pacman’s personal best for consecutive knockouts in a row is 19.

While Pacquiao is clearly no slouch in this category, Armstrong has the leg up in the power department.